Look! Someone makes a proper kids bike

So Lily went in her first short track bike race last night, she had an AWESOME TIME. (I went in my first one too, i also had an awesome time,but i’m a grown up about these things and must be calm… BLEEEEE I WENT IN A RACE)…

Anyways, it’s 110% clear that she needs gears to get her little patooty up some of the grassyhills. She’s practically standing on her current gear and the bike won’t roll :slight_smile:

So I got looking around. These guys are out of my price range for a 6 year old but HOLY COW, check em out

islabikes.com/us/bike_pages/beinn20lrg.html

no suspension!! bleee!! good parts!! nice weight!! Super impressed.

That being said, I’m leaning towards the MEC 20 incher, also looks like a nice parts spec and nice build.

I know Norco used to do a trade up program through their dealers, which made keeping your kid on a quality and properly sized bike still available. I wonder if they still do it.

My son is on his second season with the 20" wheeled MEC bike. It’s a great little bike overall. The fork is a little stiff and I’ve been meaning to pull it apart to have a look to see if there’s any way to soften it up but on the other hand he’s getting bigger/heavier so it is starting to compress more. Parts spec is decent and most important- he likes it so he wants to ride. Whoever assembled it routed the derailleur cable incorrectly so it was binding a little but that was a quick and easy fix.

I considered going with a rigid fork for the weight savings but ultimately figured he’d dig having some suspension even if it’s not the plushest thing ever.

For trail riding I’d highly recommend a tire swap. The stock tires are fine for street and gravel but aren’t an aggressive enough tread for much else. There are pretty limited choices, I ended up getting him a pair of Kenda ‘smoke’ or something like that from ebay.

Yeah, kids like the look of suspension so if it makes em ride, great.

Specialized makes a line of kid’s bikes called the Hotrock. May be out of the price range, but they look pretty nice.

Check out the Hotrock 20 Pro. Even has a chain guide.

http://www.specialized.com/ca/en/bikes/kids/hotrock-girls/hotrock-20-pro

There is also spawn cycles. They are canadian, but if you think the isla bikes are expensive, look out.

Also lilshredder has some full sus frames, but they are in the same price range as adult bikes.

Yeah, there are a bunch of bikes out there kona have the equivalent to the hotrock/opus/mec … If money is no object (yeah right) the Lil Shredder bikes have it going on… Hardtail and full suspension designs.

Yeah, money is totally an object :slight_smile: Even more so for a 20 inch bike. I don’ twant CT but we’re also not going bespoke. Chances are almost 100% it will be a Louis Garneau. About $220 ish.

When she gets to 24inch wheel size, I’ll get a bit pickier. Isla continues to be wicked impressive to me tho. Its like Surly for kids.

Not sure if you’ve already found something or what you time frame was but I noticed this locally on Kijiji:

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-kids-bike/dartmouth/mec-kids-bike/1002632444?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

I should point out I have no connection to the seller and recommend due diligence when buying things from Kijiji…

Ah shit. This would have been perfect. I should have looked. ( We ended up getting her a sweet louis garneau and she loves it. so woo! )